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Subscribe to RSSChinese are growing more outspoken about the "fog," now accurately calling it "smog," covering cities like Beijing.
BEIJING—While China’s chief climate negotiator is getting rock star treatment at the Durban climate summit this week, his peers back in the capital are suffering a third straight day of foul air.
As a leading Canadian newspaper put it, China provided “the few glimmers of hope at the stalled negotiations” in Durban, where "photographers and television journalists swarmed around the chief Chinese negotiator, Xie Zhenhua, as he entered a news conference on Monday to announce his list of conditions for considering a legally binding treaty on carbon emissions after 2020."
It seems that despite being the world's biggest carbon emitter, China could be the key to a deal on a legally binding agreement to reduce emissions.
However, not many glimmers of hope could be spotted back home.
From the China Daily website
A grid image posted on the China Daily newspaper showing the dramatic changes in air quality in Beijing in the past four days.
A persistent 'fog'
The Chinese state-run print media all ran headline stories Tuesday morning on the persistent "fog" that has blanketed Beijing and parts of the country’s northeast since the weekend. (See video above of the "hazardous" level of smog on Monday).
Much of the coverage focused on the hundreds of flights cancelled at the Beijing Capital International airport—the world’s second busiest hub—or the rising and very vocal concerns about air pollution. Some local reports referred to sales of air filter masks and air filter machines spiking in the past week.
Still more reports tried to cast the air pollution issue as one of sovereignty. "The heavy fog or smog that has shrouded Beijing in the past couple of days has triggered a renewed round of debate over the different air pollution standards applied by China and the United States," said an opinion piece in the Global Times, a state-run newspaper with a strong nationalist overtone.
But at least these same newspapers are now calling it "smog" rather than "fog," as they were just a day ago. The China Daily, another state-run newspaper, ran a headline on page 3 crying, "Exposure to smog is severe hazard." Later in the day, the paper’s web site posted four stark images of the same location showing changes in air visibility. (See photo above). The images are pretty staggering.
Only 13 days of 'good' air this year so far
And as we write this, the ever-trusty and ever-reliable @BeijingAir Twitter feed has been down five hours, prompting followers to wonder whether the pollution has finally gotten to the air quality index monitor that lives on top of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
Post by @TomVandeWeghe
An image of an iPhone app circulating on Twitter this afternoon, showing the @BeijingAir monitor out of commission.
A sobering analysis of the @BeijingAir feed can be found in this post by China Dialogue, which notes that the improvements in air quality claimed by officials at the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau "are due to irregularities in the monitoring and reporting of air quality – and not to less polluted air."
Moreover, based on the analysis using the @BeijingAir data, this year there have only been 13 days of "good" air quality.
Buried further amidst the quantitative data was one more alarming point: "…if Beijing’s fine particulate concentration even reached the polluted levels of Los Angeles, life expectancy may increase by over five years."
We at NBC News Beijing are trying to claw back a few months to our life span. We have just taken delivery of two air filter machines for the bureau.
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I went to China in 2005, and I can tell you that yes, it is bad.
You should see the color of the river in Shanghai.
This makes you think to yourself, why are GOP/TP candidates calling for relaxing (i.e. destroying) environmental regulations over here? They envious of those pictures? My lungs aren't.
they're only thinking short term. Run for president to increase sales for book deals. Outsource to cut costs/increase profits. Never mind that when everyone does that it decreases sales for almost everyone. Remove regulations to cut costs/increase proftis. Not a big deal, those in charge can afford to move a couple towns away when they've destroyed the air and water. Anything to increase bonuses for the guys on top.
What a silly article. Why would any rational person believe that the Chinese government would want to extend the lifespan of their citizens. They're desparate to cut back on their population. The only thing worse than having mass death in China (or India) is having mass births. Sooner or later nature will counter our locust-like abuse of nature with the classic lemming solution.
Because if the citizens think the government is against them, they'd revolt. Look at the Arab Spring movement.
However, the citizens there do tend to have the mentality that the good of the country is greater than one person, which is why they tend to put up with things that Americans find reprehensible.
Amazing, targeting the GOP/TP candidates for "relaxing ?" the U.S.'s environmental regulations. This article is about China's pollution problem, and it his case China should fix THEIR smog problem and not a World court wanting to use World resources.
Better go after organizations like GE which leads the pack for shipping jobs to China. While you are at it, might as well TELL Mr. Obama to fire his JOBS CZAR (CEO of GE).
Maybe China will ask the IMF for funding to take care of their environmental abuse.
Yep, all the World's pollution problems is the U.S.'s fault and expect this to be the main talking point at these climate control World groupie meetings.
Sheeesh, Liberals will target their opposition for anything and everything. Of course, that is a standard Liberal procedure.
If anyone thought for even a second that was natural fog you need to be quarantined for life and given the chair.
It's so painfuly obvious that it's smog it's not even funny, and yet China STILL continues to deny it?
@Ido: China is the world's largest polluter. USA is the second largest.
Forgive me for drawing a relation between the two where clearly no relation exists.
Why don't you go over there and breathe their "air" and see if that's something you'd like to see over here? Do it. I have, and I didn't enjoy it in the least.
ido, what a bunch of political BS. the REALITY is that certain right-ring FOOLS want to eliminate environmental regulation "because it is so bad for business". and "China does it, so we have to do it too so we can compete".
of course you also have to deflect with red-herrings by throwing up completely irrelevant issues (standard right-wing tactics, facts don't matter)
So went to a heavily polluted country with a very powerful and authoritarian government and your first reaction was to desire more government control in the US?
You have to admit that at least a large portion of liberal "enviromentalists" are in the movement simply because they hate corporate enterprise and industry in America.
@KiloByte: There are radicals in every movement. While the idea that one gives up personal freedoms with more government control is accurate, one has to weigh the benefits for the greater good. For example, I can't just go around taking dumps on sidewalks. Why? It's unsanitary. But where's my freedom if I can't do that?
Corporations and individuals (see automobiles) are taking dumps in our air every day. Air you and I have to breathe. Personally I think more government control of what one can put into air that affects everyone is a valid cause. And personally, I don't know how anyone could argue for less government regulations when it comes to the environment, when those pictures show exactly what happens. I just do not get it.
P.S. I work for a large corporation :)
If Texas were a country it would be in the top 10 polluters, and here in GOP run Arizona - Phoenix looks pretty much the same as the China pictures.
Love that picture - the cars are leaving trails where they cut through the smog.
bullspit , utter and complete bullspit
of course , using kilobytes (and most right-wing idiots) brand of so-called "logic" that means that the right-wing idiots simply hate our health and our environment
what is hated has been EARNED by corporations that have put the bottom line over the health of those around them by doing everything in their power to hide the facts of their gross pollution by pretty slogans and hiring paid idiots to say how cleaning up their act is so terrible
of course the right-wingers want to completely gloss over and hide the "burning river" of cleveland, the smog of LA (that was looked as bad as Beijings in the 50s to 70s). lots and lots of examples of what the EPA has done, and the right-wing idiots want to eliminate.
because we all see how well (self regulation) works (it doesn't and never has)
"Just another biased story by those environmental wackos", as the reporter in a gas mask explains.
lol
Ruken "This makes you think to yourself, why are GOP/TP candidates calling for relaxing (i.e. destroying) environmental regulations over here?"
Here's a great idea - Let's tighten up our air and water standards by a factor of 10.
Never mind that the cost will result in unemployment of 50% and we'll have no money for food or shelter.
Everyone would love air and water as pure as we can get it, but are we willing to pay the price? Would you insist on air and water that is 99.99% pure instead of the 99.9% pure we have now if it cost us 50 million jobs?
Life is full of tradeoffs.
drainbramage "If Texas were a country it would be in the top 10 polluters, and here in GOP run Arizona"
And things are so much better in California, especially in Los Angeles, run by Democrats.
@Roy: That's why global regulations are needed. This is now a global economy and needs to be worked on a global scale. Notice how the Euro debt situation affects our stock indices?
I was in China on business in 2002, and took a riverboat from Chongqing (Chung King to you westerners) to Shanghai. While in Chongqing and Shanghai, I did notice the same smog levels as when I was in Los Angeles. I also was fortunate(?) enough to travel down the Yangtze before the completion of the Three Gorges Dam. I noticed an incredible amount of pollution in this fabled river. There were oil slicks, dead animals, and trash of every imaginable sort. I have seen China at it's best and worst, all in the same visit. They have such a beautiful history, and I can only hope that they arise to save it.
actually Roy, since I grew up there,and only moved out a couple years ago, I can say with absolute certainty that the air in LA is FAR cleaner than it was in the 70s. and I worked in the environmental compliance industry, so I know that the soil and substrata is far better off than it used to be, even though there is a lot of old contamination in many places.
when I was a kid and lived in the San fernando valley, I couldn't see the hills two miles away in the summer (couldn't see much more than a 1/2 to 1 mile from the brown, eye-watering haze). now even on the worst days (except when there is a fire) you can see clear across the entire valley, although it will still be brown-tinged. and the population is considerably higher now, too
As someone who has worked with their factories, I can say that despite the horrible environmental conditions the Chinese have, serious action is being taken. Whole entire factory blocks and neighborhoods are being torn down and replaced with "green zones" with strict environmental controls, greenery, and even open space. It's a direct effort to reduce carbon emissions.
My company had to find new factories as our current ones were demolished.
Not surprising...look how many lunatics we have protesting corporations as they use their products at the very protests condemning them haha....people really arnt all that bright.
KiloByte1339, "You have to admit that at least a large portion of liberal "enviromentalists" are in the movement simply because they hate corporate enterprise and industry in America."
We have a winner folks! The dumbest comment of the day.
Let's see if I can top it, "You have to admit that at least a large portion of conservative "corporationists" are against the movement simply because they hate the environment and a healthy America."
I believe that many of the conservative corporationist executive types only care about resource plundering, shipping costs, pricing, competitiveness, and profits, and if somebody, some town, some city, or an entire country gets stomped-on enroute, their belief is that if they don't do it that someone else will, and that someone else will then have a bigger yacht or become a member at a better country club or they will get to have a whole bunch of other executive perks as a result. Remember that high-level capitalism is all about an addiction to getting your nose way up in the air above everyone else.
Hey Roy: If you don't like the political situation in LA, then why don't you move somewhere that is heavily Republican? Might I suggest Phoenix, Colorado Springs, San Antonio, or Cheyenne, so that you can buy a cowboy hat, a pickup truck, and sometime go shooting with Dick Cheney???
Pollution of the air, water, groundwater, and soil in China is old hat. If it weren't for all of the Asian free trade agreements there would be a lot less pollution there too. Just think: Thanks to a bunch of Republicans, China is set to become the largest consumer market in the world, a far larger consumer economy than we ever dreamed of having in fact. Anyone interested in a very complete photo expose on Chinese pollution might I suggest this author's work, which is only two years old:
http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/
Don't laugh, because before the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the High-Sulfur coal/Acid Rain Act, Superfund law, and various mining reclamation and solid and hazardous waste disposal acts, these photos could very well have been shot here in America, AND, if we let the Republicans have the Presidency and both Houses of Congress ever again, we could very easily see these kind of photos fairly regularly here in the US again too!!!
Don't forget that the average Chinese industrial worker only earns $80-$100 per week too!!!
We should ship all the right wing Climate Change deniers to China. I'm sure they will get there and deny the smog into oblivion. They'll take their Pickup Trucks and SUVs and do donuts all day every with flags out the window and talk about freedom and...poof, no more smog.
One of the biggest polluters in China is Apple Computer. All of you I Pad I-whatever users are putting dangerous chemicals and poison into the environment in China and all over the world when they are thrown away. apple has no sole and it will come back to haunt them!
Don't be so myopic -- blaming one company for all this pollution is like blaming one dog for all the dog poo in the United States.
One of the biggest polluters in China is the coal power plants that are so common, and the incredible new number of cars that have begun clogging the streets. Apple Computers is only in one part of the country. I can tell you that living in the southwest can be almost as bad as Beijing.
China even burns 'coke' for fuel. I worked briefly at an oil refinery, and we produced tons of coke (as a byproduct from the worst of the crude oil) that was shipped to china because it was too dirty to be used in the US. One of the reasons I left the company was that the heads were trying to get that product used here in the US. Regulations are our friends.
Source?
Since last year it is Apple, not Apple Computers.
Plus I doubt Apple pollutes, foxconn has high environmental standards! Just look it up.
This is really pathetic to say this.
microsoft
LOL
The people of India have been rebelling against America for turning its country into an industrial dump site for a decade...and you wonder why I say our media uses Climate change as a distraction from addressing pollution....
Please cite a source for your claim.
others has to push china to be cleaner.. corruption makes it hard to move in a cleaner way..
welcome to the developed world! nothing like fecal dust to inhale for a good days work
hey, your body and immune system will deal with "fecal dust" just fine (and imagine what that dust was like when we had horses for transportation and when the sewage and garbage just went into the street). it's the ozone, PAHs, heavy metal laden dust, etc. that are the real problem.
Our lungs can handle ozone, its carbon monoxide that they cant.
danwill, I have a 3am trip to the hospital in an ambulance that says our immune system will not handle "fecal dust" or any fecal matter just fine. Not to say those other things aren't serious problems - they are (free radicals etc).
Some can handle the fecal and other dust better then others because they have a stronger immune system. Its these people in the future with the way things are going that we will evolve from creating lungs able to operate in low oxygen high pollutant areas.
Wow admitting to a smog problem..Sounds like the Republicans are loosing power in China too...
I know. I can't believe the liberals have brainwashed those poor Chinese into believing they have an effect on their environment. Luckily we have Inhofe, Bachmann, and Limbaugh to chastise per reviewed studies and lead our true patriotic conservatives heads ever deeper into the sand.....
Vote conservative all the time. If you don't some scientist will teach your kid something you were told is not true.
Jesuswillbrb: Are you saying that reducing carbon emissions doesn't reduce pollution? It does. See that thing by your car's muffler? It's called a catalytic convertor. Look up what it does.
Then look at pollution statistics before and after air quality controls were put into place. And people say humans have no effect on climate. It starts with carbon pollution.
Yak I think your sarcasm detector is broken.
jesuswillbrb , and sadly everytime a science research article is published on msn, I read loads of people who call it bull@!$%# and criticize govt spending on the research - no matter what the topic. Sad, isn't it?
This was the U.S. in the industrial era, we have changed our way, we have dep, osha, and that has driven our industry to China where they can do this to the air and water, and have no concern over workers safety or health. We will still breath the air, it travels around the world,we will still eat the fish that live in the ocean that their rivers dump into, we just don't have the jobs because there is no fair trade act. Stop this by terriffs on workers safety, child labor laws, clean water and air acts as we have and the jobs will come home, clean.
And yet, if we didn't have the enforcement from OSHA and the EPA, our factories would be just like China's.
Maybe we should tax companies that move to China, instead of turning our own country into a toxic waste dump.
find a way to package the smog and sell it to generate a profit ... gotta think like the East people!
We did. We've got China to do all the polluting for us, and they provide cheap slave labor, so that we can get their junk at low prices.
The GOP will not stop until it has destroyed the EPA. Hell, it's one of their stated goals. When Bush was in office they put lobbyists for polluting industries in charge of the EPA. We're going backwards, the Chinese are going forwards and we'll soon pass in the middle. In twenty years American cities will look like London in the 19th century. Chinese cities will be cleaner. The masses will demand it. In this country, of course, corporations are people. The only "people" with billions of dollars to buy and control our government. So our environment is doomed.
I had an uncle that was a DEM,a drunk,worthless couldn't hold a job, beat his wife dog and children and figured out a way to get every handout that was offered. I can forgive him for a lot of things, but not being a DEM!
Perfect republican priorities-unreal-beat your wife and children, hey that's OK. Drunk? That's fine most republicans are closet alcoholics. Worthless and unable to hold a job? Sounds like every republican "upper class twit". But be a democrat? Oh no we can't have that. That's just...well, that's just unreal!
Nothing worse than being in China when this happens.....it IS as bad as it looks! Even wearing a mask there is a constant sharp metallic taste in your mouth and everything is coated in the garbage that floats in the air. China really needs to step up and DO something instead of lying about it, minimizing it, and toeing the party line.
Even in 1980 when I was in Shanghai I made the mistake of going outside and looking up. Got a tiny little cinder in my eye. Miserable.
When my plane was coming in for a landing, I thought, wow, it's snowing outside. Turned out it was the smog. ALOT of it! Burning eyes and throat all week. For the two weeks I was there, I didn't see the sun. And as the Chinese would say, If it doesn't kill you, it'll make you stronger.
Doesn't surprise me, it's been known for a long time that China has a big pollution problem, I am curious to know what they will do to fix it though.
Depends, now that they've actually admitted it, they could potentially make changes quickly. When they set their mind firmly to something, they tend to bust their butts to get it done fast.
Might be a little too much wishful thinking however.
@Ruken - how are they going to fix it when they are starting up a coal fired power plant a the rate of roughly 1 a week? Probably with no smokestack scrubbers or any other of the EPA-mandated controls we have in this country.
One of the biggest issues is burning coal (e.g., in the picture above, right at the edge of Beijing) without doing anything to remediate the emissions, like scrubbers. It's hard to reduce CO2, but easier to reduce particulates and sulfur compounds (in fact, you can produce salable sulfuric acid from the residue of burning high-sulfur coal) which are a big component of the smog. They just need to decide it's worth the cost -- which they will probably eventually do. But the CO2 will be a harder problem for everyone, including us, to deal with. As long as we're burning something that didn't grow in the recent past, we're adding to our global CO2 problem.
I've been in Beijing on bad days, and you can't see the ground from the windows of the upper floors of an office building -- it is truly awful. You wouldn't want to breathe it every day. And they don't either.
@Neal: Yea I was wishful thinking.
Of course, coal plants are the biggest issue over here too. In fact, I'd wager they're the biggest problem anywhere, at least in terms of the raw CO2 they emit.
Everyone just wants cheap easy electricity I guess and doesn't want to think how dirty it is.
and they also want to pretend that the long-term costs don't really exist no matter what science says. they just stick their fingers in their ears and screm "no no no no!"
gee, I wonder why china is also investing tens of billions of dollars every years in developing solar and wind (and other alternative) energy ? meanwhile, the right-wing hacks are demanding that we STOP investing in alternative energy and just go backwards to "go forward".
but it is typical right-wing BS, "less is more", "poor is rich" ,"down is up", etc.
China is one of the leading developers in Solar Panels. Watched a documentary about it some Business men who make their buildings using the solar panels to make it totally self sufficient. He is a scientist/entrepreneur and sells his products to USA, Europe and Australia. To bad the smog is to thick for the sun to reach the solar panels in China.
They probably are, because slave labor wages and dumping the toxic waste from the manufacturing process makes China a great place to make panels. I worked on a solar panel factory project here in the States. They received all kinds of perks to build here, from tax breaks, to cheap land, and the wages were pretty average about 14 bucks an hour. After two years in operation, they shut down, closed the doors, fired everybody and went to China. Cheap labor and environmental regulations or the lack of were the reason they left.
It's a shame, it really is. When when grabbing a quick buck because the profitability of slave labor wages and the ability to dump toxic waste takes precedent over making long term investments and creating a company with loyal to employees, and employees who would be loyal to the company.
When were finished with the plant, 600 people were thrilled to have jobs, worked hard, and were spending their paychecks locally. They were rewarded with pink slips.
I guess we don't have to worry about the Chinese overpopulation.
I don't get it. I think one of the reasons they are having such difficulties with their air quality is because of overpopulation. The main issue at hand here is that China's choices (when it comes to sustainability) affect every country on this planet. Interesting fact: Around 74% of the carbon dioxide/monoxide input into the atmosphere is generated by buildings not automobiles.
Phuneeghai - the idea is that they would all die from cancer.
Love to see a plan comes together. The great population control project is progressing nicely.
Looks like Los Angeles In the late 50's, before they started to reduce emission from autos. Hey we should go back in time when we had no strict air quality rules, as the GOP suggests. Maybe they weren't around then, But I remember and my lungs hated it.
In much of China you get one or two clear days a year -It's on those days that all the photographers come out and take pictures for postcards and travel guides.
Really? For those of you that have and will make comments about AMERICAN Politics - I got the distinct impression that this story was about smog in CHINA - not US politics....not the GOP...not anything else but a SMOG problem in China. Why is it that people have to take EVERY single story and try to hijack it to use as a platform to bitch and complain about the GOP or the Dems or the President or the former President.....that is NOT why the story is about. could please make an attempt to stay on task here and comment about THIS story? So tired of EVERY thread being hijacked for that reason. If that's all you have to say over and over and over then leave the rest of the threads to those who want to have an intelligent discussion about something else and limit your responses to stories that are actually ABOUT US politics..
@NJRichie - they do this to badger us into believing as they do and then they can feel better about themselves, just like any Religion! I learned to feel better about myself without inflicting myself on anyone else. As for the Chinese (to stay on topic), they wanted to emulate the economic power of the West as quickly as possible. This is the end result.
How about comments about issues in politics dealing with environment regulation debates, when we are witnessing the result of lack of environmental regulation?
You want to tell me that's in no way valid to this?
Ruken, yes intelligent discussion I encourage. I'm talking about comments like "THE GOP WANTS TO DO AWAY WITH THE EPA" That type of statement has no merit. That statement is simply unproven hype from a small faction of people that is designed to provoke an argument - not a discussion. If you are going to make a statement similar to that one, then show proof, and a causal link that would indicate that the Republican party is making an effort to eliminate environmental regulation without regard to the cost to the people of this country. All i'm saying is let's get rid of the ignorant, argumentative statements that have no merit or relevance to the article in question. It gets so inane that I have actually seen a serious post blaming President Obama because of an accident that happened. And how many times - joking aside, have you seen statements on totally unrelated links blaming George Bush (Junior or Senior - take your choice) for a variety of things - all posted on completely unrelated threads. It really is ridiculous. If a person is THAT irritated with the party/person they are whining about how about DOING something about it instead of hijacking EVERY single Newsvine thread? Run for office....work on a campaign for someone you DO agree with......post in the appropriate forum on related posts!! Anything but this crap
Gee, that paves the way for California to make the same admission for the Central Valley!
I have been in China a few times in the past years. I had never seen a "clear" day by my standard I am used to in US. It makes city like LA a paradise to them. The best day's sun looks like their salty egg yolk that Chinese enjoy very much. Chinese don't know what clear day is after they rushed to become the world manufacturer. They are very green in cash they made.
Take a look at Americas future if the Republicans get their way and do away with enviromental protection laws and leave it up to industry to regulate themselves
Sounds like the L.A. basin in the 60's and 70's. That's not smog, just haze. While we still have a long way to go and L.A. is still listed on the bad air survey's, from one who has lived here since the 50's things have improved significantly. Maybe not burning all that coal to be a super power industrial nation might help, or you can choke to death on it.
We lived in Beijing from April 2008 until February 2011. I had 2 lung infections while there and when I saw my Dr in the states he sternly told me not to return to Beijing because of the air pollution and the damage to my lungs. The Chinese govt lies to it's people everyday about there air quality,water quality and tainted food,hmmm sounds like a great place for the Republicans to go,profits before people.
The republicans will have you believe that the EPA is ruining business in America and we need to relax the rules governing our environment,you need to look no further than China if you want to see what lax environmental rules do to the environment. This would be such a great legacy to leave to our descendants would it not?
Really. You think the GOP wants the Untited States to be like China. Get a grip. Isn't Obama the one praising their economy. Haven't the Union leaders used China as an icon. Sry, you are looking at the wrong party if you want to know who wants us to be more like China.
P.S. Just because you call yourself an Enviromental Protection agency doesn't mean that is what you have become. Nice name so why am I forced to buy lightbulds with mercury in them?
@Flasco - go with LEDs or the new (in December I heard) ESLs.
@Flasco: The potential energy savings from the fluorescent bulbs you've mentioned would enable this country to take many current power plants off-line. Best case, that would be the coal-burning plants. Every year, the mercury (not to mention other noxious chemicals) from these plants far exceeds the total volume of mercury in CFLs.
Further, once LEDs become less costly for the consumer, the mercury issue will become moot.
China needs to go green... but until then, BUY AMERICAN.
No way. BUY AMERICAN has no expire date.
The communist regime is like a retarded child with no ability to plan for the future. They will not clean up the environment for their own sake, but rather they will be buying canisters of clean air. You just watch, that's gonna be the big market soon.
Soon ? Zhongnanhai is well equipped with the best air filter money can buy - German products, of course.
The communist regime may not plan for the future, but Communists do. They all plan to migrate to the US after they've got their billions.
There are a lot of US cities that need to start admitting it too, fog doesn't stink.
China holds a lot of U.S. debt. Maybe we could work some of that off by helping them with the tech it takes to run cleaner.
Why ? Are you crazy ? Why not just wait till the pollution kill them all off, and we don't have to lift a finger to do a thing.
Good thinking bill! You're a real American!
One of the few upsides to fossil fuel is the fact that they are finite. We have 2 choices, use them all with the population increasing as it is now, or use them all with the population drastically reduced. I think that the last 2 or 3 generations have sowed the seeds of our forced decision. When the permafrost begins to degas, the loss of habitable land will cause conflict everywhere. It's one thing to say "I disagree with the government", it's another thing when 8 people move into your backyard. The sad thing is that capitalism has made conflict profitable, and to the United States, necessary.
Given the rise in gun sales, this will result in a lot of dead people in a lot of backyards. BTW - conflict has ALWAYS been profitable, regardless of the economic system running it.
I hope for Chinas sake that they attempt to clean up their enviroment, and I hope for our sake that we continue to protect ours.
If the Chinese keep this up their environment can cross the ocean and become ours. Do the math.
If you do the math, figuring the lifespan of emissions as well as their rate of travel through the atmosphere, you will find some scary conclusions. Ozone depletion, as one example, thus far is the result of pollution from decades ago. Just when the modern industrial world was leveling off our various destructive emissions, the developing world started cranking theirs up. In other words, eat drink and be merry 'cause it's too late. Earth will be well rid of us within the next 200 years.